With the 7-3 victory over the Detroit Tigers, The Dodgers have now started the season 5-0 for the first time since 1981, when they started 6-0. The last time a reigning WS champion started the following season 5-0 was the 1985 Detroit Tigers who went 6-0.
Not one player is dominating. I know it is only 5 games, but this start reminds me of my favorite season, 2017. That team was never out of a game, and they seemed to have a different star every game, until they got cheated.
Game 1 – Chicago Cubs – Yoshinobu Yamamoto and 4 relievers.
Game 2 – Chicago Cubs – Kiké Hernández – 3-run HR. 4 innings shutdown bullpen.
Game 1 – Detroit – Teoscar Hernández – 3-run HR. Blake Snell, 5.0 IP.
Teoscar Hernández crushes a three-run homer for the lead! #OpeningDay pic.twitter.com/vWksLaZ7A7
— MLB (@MLB) March 28, 2025
Game 2 – Detroit – Mookie Betts – 2 HRs including walk off 3-run HR in 10th. Tommy Edman three critical defensive web gems in the 9th inning to save the game. Yoshinobu Yamamoto 5.0 IP.
MOOKIE BETTS HITS HIS SECOND JACK OF THE NIGHT TO WALK IT OFF. I GUESS HE DIDNT NEED THOSE 25 LBS pic.twitter.com/090WI8yqIN
— Whistle (@WhistleSports) March 29, 2025
On the eighth pitch of the at bat, Betts golfed one that was well below the zone for his second homer of the night. The ball was hit 96.7-mph off the bat, barely qualifying as a hard-hit ball. The expected batting average on it was only .270. Betts’ bat speed on the swing was only 65.5 mph, down four mph from his 2024 average.
For the game, Yamamoto struck out 10. It’s the first time in his big league career he’s hit 10 strikeouts in a game. The stuff was clearly working, as he finished his game with 17 whiffs, tying a career best.
Not surprisingly, Yamamoto’s damage came via his splitter. Of his 17 whiffs, 10 came courtesy of that deadly pitch. The Tigers swung at that pitch 14 times and made contact only four times.
In addition to getting a lot of whiffs, Yamamoto was fooling the Tigers and painting the corners as well. He finished with 21 called strikes, including 15 on his 4-seam fastball. For the game, Yamamoto had a called strike/whiff percentage of 42, tied for the highest of his career. Did he throw too many pitches? Yes. I am not going to hold it against him.
Game 3 – Detroit – Teoscar Hernández – 2-run double. Freddie with a HR, double, and 2 RBI. Dominating bullpen
It's Teo time ⏱️
Teoscar Hernández drives in two and the Dodgers are back in front. pic.twitter.com/mtpdumN25w
— MLB (@MLB) March 30, 2025
Roki Sasaki made his Dodger Stadium debut, and it will not be one that will end up in his scrapbook. 1.2 IP, 2 runs, 3 hits, 4 BB, and 2 K. He threw 61 pitches (32 K), and he had absolutely ZERO command, especially with his fastball. He walked a run in for the second consecutive game.
Jack “Maytag” Dreyer entered to bail out Sasaki and retired all four batters he faced. He changed the course of the game. The game could have gotten out of control, instead Dreyer started the bullpen dominance. 7.1 IP. 1 run, 3 hits, 0 BB, 11 K. Jack started a run of 13 consecutive outs from the bullpen.
The string was broken on a triple by Jake Rogers off Luis Garcia that bounced out of Teoscar’s glove as he hit the wall. This was the 2nd night in a row where Luis Garcia was just inches away from getting out of both games without surrendering a run. Michael Conforto laid out for a near catch that bounced behind him for a Dillon Dingler triple.
Ben Casparius had another nice inning. I was a bit surprised to see that Casparius did not get the 2nd inning instead of Luis Garcia.
Anthony Banda is becoming a must go to reliever. Back to back games, 1.0 inning, 10 pitches, and 2 Ks each game. Retired the 2-3-4 hitters in last night’s game, 2 on strikeouts: Riley Greene, Spencer Torkelson, and Kerry Carpenter. The best three Detroit hitters. Banda threw 10 pitches, 3 swings, 2 whiffs and 4 called strikes.
Kirby Yates is dominating again this year. He struck out the side in this one: Torkelson, Carpenter, and Colt Keith. All three swinging. 13 pitches, 6 swings, 5 whiffs. In his 3 games, he has pitched 3.0 scoreless innings. In those 3 games, he has given up one single and struck out 7.
Blake Treinen gave up one of the weak Margot singles, but retired the next three batters, 2 on strikeouts.
Detroit had three triples: two on the near misses identified above, and the other when Zach McKinstry’s ball got stuck momentarily under the lip of the CF fence.
Manuel Margot had 5 hits with weak exit velos: 73.2 MPH, 78.1 MPH, 90.2 MPH, 43.9 MPH, and 69.7 MPH. They still count as hits.
The Dodgers should never let Alex Vesia pitch to Spencer Torkelson again. BTW, Torkelson sure did look good this series.
Harold Uhlman’s favorite Dodger was Zach McKinstry. He would have been proud of him this series.
In the series, LAD pitchers 38 Ks and 15 BB. The hitters had 9 HRs. Two from Tommy Edman, Mookie, and Freddie. One from Shohei, Teoscar, and Will Smith. The Dodgers outscored the Tigers 20-12.
Tommy Edman leads the team with 3 HRs. Teoscar leads the team with 6
RBI. Shohei and Will Smith lead with 5 BB. For the year, the Dodgers have outscored their opponent 30-16.
Three on the outside looking in?
- Max Muncy – 1-18 (double), 20 PA, 9 K
- Andy Pages – 3-15 (1 double, 2 singles), 19 PA, 9 K
- Tanner Scott – 3 games, 3.0 IP, 2 runs (both earned), 1 blown save
MiLB SUMMARY
OKC Comets 8 – Sugar Land Space Cowboys (Houston) 2
Carlos Duran started and completed 4.1 before he hit 76 pitches. He allowed 1 run on 3 hits, 4 BB, and 8 K. For now, the pitch limit looks to be 75 pitches. Alec Gamboa finished the 5th inning allowing 1 run on 1 hit (double), 1 BB. Ryan Sublette (1.0 IP), Jose E. Hernandez (1.2 IP), and Sam Carlson (1.1 IP) combined for 4.0 shutout innings, 2 hits, 4 BB, and 7 K.
OKC was 6-14 hitting WRISP. The Comets had 4 doubles and 1 triple. The hitting star for the game was Hyeseong Kim. He was 2-3 with 2 BB. He had a double and a triple with 4 RBI. His was one was a 100.1 MPH line drive to LF.
- Eddie Rosario – 3-5, 2 runs, 1 RBI, 2 doubles
- Ryan Ward – 3-5, 2 runs
- Hunter Feduccia – 2-4, 1 BB, 1 run, 2 RBI, double
- Alex Freeland – 2-4, 1BB, 1 run
Bobby Miller faces Lance McCullers Jr. on a rehab assignment in the final game of the series on Sunday.
Sasaki not only did not have ANY command of his pitches today, his velo as also down from his first start hitting 95-96 only .
Guy is a work in progress. If he continues to go out early the Dodgers will have to make a decision or they will burn the bullpen early in the season .
Good to see Kim get it going at AAA.
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I suspect we will start to see Sasaki get better once he completely adjusts to the big leagues and the routine of pitching in the MLB. If not, I don’t think the Dodger brass will continue to see him make adjustments and “burn” the BP in LA and he might be destined for a trip to OKC like they did with Kim and Bobby Miller.
The kid looked devastated when the camera showed him in the dugout. AF/BG, Doc and Prior will have to monitor his progress closely and ensure the upward progression of pitching successfully at the MLB level is indeed occurring vs. the risk of shattering his confidence.
When the Dodgers broke camp I was wondering where they would find the room to add Gonsolin and it seems this might be the spot in the rotation that creates that opening. Sasaki will get 2-3 more starts while Gonsolin works on his re-hab assignment.
On another note, Casparius and Dreyer look very good.
Great start to the season.
Maybe they should try using an opener for Sasaki next time. I wonder if he has had control issues in the past.
I believe Sasaki will get it figured out. I’d suggest he just try to throw the ball over the middle and see what happens.
I believe Kim will figure it out too. I very much look forward to him playing with the big club.
Buehler didn’t pitch well in his first game. Got the L and starts the year with an 8.31 ERA.
Off on a Sunday?
Are the Lakers as good as they’ve looked or are they as bad as they’ve looked. Love watching Doncic. With two guys always following him somebody will have an open shot. Get to your spot, wait for the no look pass and make the shot. And oh yeah, defend the perimeter.
Anybody read Dylan Hernandez this morning?
What did he write ?
Go Dodgers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
The entire article was about whether the Dodgers should go to the White House.
What a dumb issue to address on a sport.
Seriously dumb. I wouldn’t read it if payed The whole idea of it being in question is whacked. It’s a real bummer some feel a need to pollute sports with politics.
I thought it was well written.
I agree, there is enough politics in the game as it is without bringing up a stupid visit to the White House.
He is not like the other pitchers in the rotation. So far, no command or control. We’ll have to wait and see. We have a deep club with many trying to crack the rotation.
I understand pitching him before Miller, Knack & Wrobleski, but he’ll have a hard time staving off Gonsolin, Ohtani & Kershaw. Honestly, could be a development year.
Agree about Kim. I have him, Rushing & Freeland all making next year’s roster.
Taylor, Rojas, Barnes, Keekay & Conforto will all be FAs.
And next year will be Muncy’s last, possibly in a reduced role.
Too soon observations after 5:
Dodgers need a CF & a 3B: Pages 3-15 9K; Muncy 1-18 9K (BTW: Arenado 4-8 1K). I know, it’s early, but just saying! Hard to watch Max at the plate right now.
Sasaki is pressing (duh)! I think the loss in velo was him trying to find the strike zone. He’ll figure it out.
Freddie looks to be in mid-season form! Monster year ahead for him.
Can’t help but love me some Tommy Edman!
Conforto looks solid so far.
What’s with all the softball uni’s around the league this year? The Rangers look almost comical.
Max isn’t going anywhere anytime soon. Pages is going to get the starts against most comers until he proves he can’t do the job. They are not going to change things this early in the season.
Way to early to start panicking. Now if Muncy and Pages are still struggling in May we might have something to talk about.
Late May or June I would think.
Yankees set a team record with 9 homers yesterday. Judge hit 3 of them and Bellinger had one also. And they hit 4 in the first inning off of Cortes, who they traded to the Brewers last winter.
I think Cortes actually gave up 4 HRs in a row… if you count Freddie’s blast in Game One!
I believe you are right.
Cortes pitched one other inning giving up zero runs.
What a pleasure it is to watch the Dodgers go to work. Indeed, they beat a very good Detroit team and never gave up after falling behind, I think in every game? Mookie, Freddie, Shohei, Tommy, and Will, showed us this team is destined to win.
Sasaki fell apart, again. OK, it’s early and he needs to adjust, but will he? I’m sure they didn’t make a mistake picking him up but he may not be ready for MLB as he had no command or control today. He is very un-Dodger like. Luckily, our BP is all business.
Did anyone notice how Pages disregarded Ebel trying to stop him at 3rd and ran right past him to score a run? In one of the other games Ebel gave the go ahead to a runner and he was thrown out easily. I couldn’t believe he did that. It was very obvious that that runner did not have enough time to beat the throw.
How about Garcia forgetting to cover first for Freddie on a routine grounder that Freddie took away from 1B. Fielding 101. A 38 year old brain fart?
He’s first man off.
Garcia was just doing his Gerrit Cole impression…
He did have an embarrassed “I-screwed-up” look on his face, perhaps because Freddie had a “you-screwed-up” look on his.
Sasaki had a rough day, but also some rough luck with that swinging bunt by Margot. Remember that Yamamoto also had a rough start with the Dodgers before settling down for a very effective season.
Not worried about the kid. His stuff is nasty when right. How many guys that young coming from another country are nails their first time out? Not many. He wasn’t all that impressive in Japan in his first start either.
Zero command is right. Bobby Miller must be licking his chops today.
Miller needs to concentrate on his own problems, mainly keeping his head in the game when bad shit happens.
True
And the ball off his head
Nice
It’s no great surprise that the Dodgers are rolling at 5-0. Meanwhile, the Padres are undefeated too at 3-0, having swept a very, very good Braves team.
While I believe these Dodgers could threaten the Mariners’ 116-win season record, they could be eliminated in the playoffs, just like those Mariners.
I’m not sure if the Padres or the D’backs are the stiffer competition in the NL West. The Giants are improved too. Meanwhile, the Braves and Phillies look significantly better.
While Tanner Scott is having a rough start, old pal Kenley Jansen just got his first save for the Angels, combining with Soriano and Joyce for a 2-hit 1-0 shutout against the still woeful White Sox. I’m rooting for Kenley to keep racking up those saves and maybe next year sign a one-day contract to retire at a Dodgers (Odds of an October Freeway Series? 1,000 to 1 seems about right.)
Thanks for the OKC news. Really nice to see Kim have a big game. Probably does wonders for his confidence.
The top of the batting order was Kim, Rushing, Freeland, Outman–four guys I hope we see in LA later this season. Feduccia should get another chance too.
Feduccia probably has the least likely chance of making it to LA barring an injury of any of those guys. Outman needs to really get hot to have any chance at all. Rushing is also a long shot to be in LA. Right now, he is catching every other day. He won’t DH in LA and he won’t be playing first or the outfield up here anytime soon.
You sound confident that neither Smith or Barnes will spend time on the IR. I think both Rushing and Feduccia will get some time in LA. Feduccia has shown well both in OKC and in spring training. Hunter is currently hitting over .400 in s very very short sample. Both Rushing and Feduccia hit from the left side which we are short on at LA. Most importantly to me, for whatever that’s worth, they both deserve a shot. I’m hoping that Smith gets much more rest this season and those two players step up.
Injuries are the only way either one of them will see any time in LA. Smith looks to be in pretty good shape. Barnes does too. Deserve a shot? Maybe, but neither’s defense is that great right now. I at this point think it is WAY TOO EARLY to even broach the subject of who gets the call and who doesn’t except with the pitchers.
Max Scherzer placed on the 15-day IL by the Jays with an inflammation of his thumb.
Snell pitched game 1 of the series with Detroit, not Yamamoto.
Yes I know. I wrote quite a bit standing up for Snell while others were critical. I kept changing things up on my post, moving things around, and messed with my placement of Yamamoto. But thanks for pointing it out. I have changed it.
Monday will show the real strength of this Dodger team. Most teams bring some stinky fish to the table at 4 & 5 starters. The Dodgers will be going with Glasnow and May!
Holmes vs Glasnow, Sale vs May, Lopez vs Snell. Braves are trailing the Padres again in SD, 1-0 in the second inning.
I knew you would.
OKC wins 3-2. They scored a run in the top of the 9th on a single by Gauthier, a bunt single by Okey, a sac bunt by Kim, Rushing was walked to load the bases then Freeland walked scoring Gauthier. Miller went 4.2 innings giving up 2 hits 2 walks and striking out 4. Davis got the win in relief and Little got the save. Ward drove in 2 runs with a double in the second, Okey had 2 hits.
Some random thoughts on a Sunday afternoon:
1) Great to start 5-0. So far no letdown.
2) I disagree with those who say Detroit is a “very good team”. They have one spectacular pitcher, one very good pitcher and a so-so lineup. I view them as a decent team but wouldn’t be at all surprised to see them miss the playoffs.
3) Really hope the Braves beat the Pads today. Don’t like the idea of facing a winless Atlanta team tomorrow.
4) I don’t necessarily think it’s fair to compare Sasaki’s first year over here with Yamamoto’s. Yoshi was a proven pitcher with an extensive history in Japan when he got here. Sasaki is much more raw and may take longer to get settled. By longer, I mean maybe most of the year.
5) Much as I’m rooting for Freeland to succeed and to do so quickly, he hasn’t proven all that much to me yet. He played at three levels last year and his numbers got worse each time he was promoted. At OKC, in what is supposed to be a hitter’s league, he had a .243 batting average and a .731 OPS. Unless he improves substantially on those numbers this year, I’m not at all ready to hand him an infield job in 2026.
Give us #6-10–it’s slow!
Dave needs a multi-inning reliever bad.
They don’t seem to think so, and I am glad Knack is not on the roster to fill that role. Guys gives up way too many bombs. Casparius has starting experience, and so does Dreyer.
Whatever the question is, Outman is not the answer.
Not now that is for sure.
Sad day for me. Our drummer, Butch Klipp passed away this evening. Been friends for over 40 years.
I know the feeling………..